Don't compound 1 mistake with another

The great-grandmother didn’t flinch once she stood in front of the five people judging her redemption as she told them why she had been a prostitute.

The York County woman got mixed up with a drug dealer turned pimp in 1974.

Three decades later, she can’t work in her church’s youth ministry because of that terrible decision despite having a spotless record since.

The nurse, grandmother of six and great-grandmother of two, is seeking a pardon that will expunge her record and allow her to do her church work.

Hers was just one of the emotional stories poured out in increments of five or 10 minutes during the state Board of Pardons meetings last week. It is a sobering process to watch. People stand, in public, before the board and retell the details of a bad decision they made.

Then come the questions about why they committed a crime, about their sobriety, about whether they are still with the same no-good boyfriend who got them in trouble in the first place and on and on. What all the tales have in common is the ending: They were caught and now have a permanent criminal record. In Pennsylvania, convictions of even minor offenses — shoplifting and public drunkenness — carry lifetime scars.

People trying to get a teaching job, law enforcement position or a hunting license all are impacted.

But during this bad economy, the repercussions have spread beyond a few job categories. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the country has experienced a background check frenzy and the number of people asking for pardons has consequently tripled. John Heaton, the board secretary, receives phone calls every day from people with hard-luck stories looking desperately for a way to erase their past mistakes.

Pardons for inmates serving life in prison make the news, but the majority of people who ask for them are living quiet lives, arrested at one point for minor crimes. The board, Sen. Joseph Scarnati because he is acting lieutenant governor, Attorney General Tom Corbett, a victim representative, a psychologist and a corrections expert, vote on cases and send the ones they recommend for pardons to the governor.

Many of the people last week, and at most hearings, sought pardons because they need a job. People might have gotten hired 20 years ago when no one asked whether they had a record. Now newly unemployed, they find, wherever they apply, their record stands in the way.

Same with schools, day cares, churches and youth sports. Even a minor criminal conviction can mean not chaperoning field trips, coaching soccer or being the church youth choir director.

Unfortunately, as the number of people wanting a pardon continues to increase the staffing at the Board of Pardons has decreased. It lost a staffer in last year’s budget. It now takes up to three years to get a hearing and that wait could increase.

Scarnati wants to add the position lost last year and the governor’s office agrees. But even adding that one person isn’t enough. Another way to meet the demand is to allow people to get their records expunged on their own. The Legislature passed a bill that took effect last year giving people the chance to go before a county judge and get summary offenses such as shoplifting expunged from their record seven years after the offense, if they have had no other run-ins with the law.

Now there is legislation sitting in a Senate committee that would increase the number of offenses that could be expunged by a judge. It would include disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, possession of marijuana, to name a few. Despite support from Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, there isn’t much appetite in the Senate to pass the bill. Some senators say it goes too far.

We aren’t talking about hardened criminals. Most of the people at the Board of Pardons meetings last week either made stupid mistakes of youthful indiscretion, had substance-abuse problems at the time or needed to turn around their lives.

There was the successful businessman who, as a college senior, was caught with marijuana. He said he wanted a pardon “for my kids and wife.”

The woman who shoplifted many years ago and has “been under the radar” but now needs to find a job and can’t because of her conviction.

Or the young teacher, involved with a high school fight when she was a senior, who received a year’s probation and stood with her father asking for a clean slate.

Except for summary offenses, our state only gives people one way to get their records expunged. It is unfair to tell someone to wait in line a couple years for the mere chance of making it happen, especially given that so many employers now do background checks. It also isn’t fair to parents who want to be involved in their children’s school programs.

The Board of Pardons needs more staff and the Senate should quickly pass legislation allowing people to expunge more misdemeanor crimes from their records. Should a great-grandmother who left her criminal past long ago really need to be on a waiting list three years so she can be a church youth counselor?